


Spirit Shaped

by ShittyKittyPoopetry



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Earth spirit hunk, Earth spirit shay, Fire spirit keith, Keith and his hippos, Lance and his sharks, Lighting spirit shiro, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Polyamory, SHEITH - Freeform, Spirit of creation pidge, SpiritAU, Threesome - M/M/M, Water spirit lance, klance, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-21 03:46:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11935659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShittyKittyPoopetry/pseuds/ShittyKittyPoopetry
Summary: Lance and his friends dream of creating and shaping their own home, their own project, instead of just maintaining something that gets passed down to them.They leave the bottom of the ocean to fulfill those dreams.It all goes as planned until a fire and a lighting spirit show up, searching for a home far away from the evil galra spirits, and turn Lance's whole world upside down.Lance isn't a homewrecker. He is trying to build a home, not destroy one.Shklance spiritAU featuring a lot of arguing between Lance and Keith if hippos or sharks are cooler.





	1. I was an island

Lance loved being in the water. Which made sense, he was a water spirit after all. He was born to be in the water and swim among fish and mermaids. He had used to live in a part of the ocean where there had been many more like him. But there everyone was in control of the water so it felt like his own work had just gotten lost within it all.

That´s when his friend of years, Hunk, had told him that he and his year-long girlfriend Shay both wanted to settle down with each other. They were both earth spirits so they wanted to create their very own sets of tunnels and islands and all that stuff with each other.

Like humans created a place to life together to show their commitment to each other, spirits did too. Ever wondered where hurricanes, thunderstorms, volcanos, rivers, islands and beautiful forests came from? Those were all created by different kinds of spirits showing their commitment to one another. Nowadays most spirits wouldn´t do it on such a huge scale anymore, like choosing to live in an apartment instead of a house. Air spirits would do smaller scaled hurricanes instead of big ones, Lightning spirits would create less strong thunderbolts than those that cause whole cities to loose their power, fire spirits would choose a forest fire instead of a volcano outbreak, water spirits would go for lakes instead of rivers, earth spirits for caves instead of islands and those of creation for flowers instead of whole forests.

But it´s not like Hunk to go small for this lady he loved so much. They had already chosen a location far away from any population or other spirits, wanting to have all the space they could get to create their own paradise. And Lance wanted nothing more than that, always having felt as if he'd be in a cage,trapped in this huge city of spirits, even though water spirits were supposed to be the spirits of freedom. So when Hunk asked him if he wanted to come along and be the spirit of water for their island, Lance happily agreed.

Some continents and islands differ from others ,right? Some places are very dry because they lack a spirit of water or frozen over since they had a spirit of ice but no spirit of fire. Some were very crowded with living beings, since they had multiple spirits of creation while others lacked those and therefore didn´t have any population. In the beginning the whole world had been a project by different kinds of spirtis creating it. Creating your own project was very risky since you could fail badly if you didn't have many different spirits to build the desired paradise. And a part of every spirit died when their project failed. Lance couldn´t begin to imagine what it must have been like for the creators of Atlantis, when their earth spirit died and every spirit, including the water spirit, had to watch it crumble into the sea, because they hadn´t been able to get a new earth spirit in time.

Now you find yourself wondering "If the project breaks as soon as an important spirit dies then how come we still have continents that excisted billions of years, is spirits can die?"

Spirits live as long as humans, they are born between other spirits, age and most of them die before they get a hundred years old, like most humans. They live hidden away from mankind, maintaining their area from places like on top of large buildings, forests or the mountains, depending on if they are the spirits of a city or a more country style area. Humans can´t see the cities of spirits even though they are just as large as those they have. Every small part of the world is protected and taken care of by spirits and most get passed down to the next generation after the one before died. Spirits of places like Paris, London and such are especially proud spirits since they belong to such famous, important places.

Meanwhile, spirits of creation and ice from the poles are dropping their work. Most of them die young because of all the shit humanity does to the world, making them unable to feed on their element. And those who don´t die young often loose their mind and don´t feel like doing their work anymore or move somewhere else.  
Hunk and Lance both came from large families of earth and water spirits that had taken care of this part of the bottom of the ocean for generations. They also had been friend with the Holt family, full of spirits of creation, for a long time, who would help them out with creating living beings such as plants and fish. For that they would help them with their area which was just a one days swim away . There weren´t many spirits of creation on the bottom of the ocean, so the Holts were constanlty moving around. And their youngest offspring ,Pidge, was a good friend of Hunk and Lance. The next time the Holts visited they asked Pidge to join them in their project. They got a few wild looks when they left home and had to promise to send updates and come visit, but their parents had known for a while that this was something they wanted to do. Even though Shay´s brother had been especially threatening about it all, swearing he would swim over and rip their throats out if they made Shay unhappy. That´s how the four spirits started their very own "project paradise".

  
To create their own island was a rocky thing. Quite literally. For the first few days Lance couldn´t do much more than to tame the water out of their way while Hunk and Shay exhausted themself with pulling ground up above the surface. Pidge busied themself with creating a few fish and water plants for around their island. After a few days of constant work they had managed to build quite a large island. You probably needed at least two hours to completly round it. They would probably be mocked for creating this in the middle of nowhere where no humans would come to admire their work. Spirits were all for their creations being admired by humans, but the friend were fine without that. Now however started the real hard work.

Pidge had to create trees and flowers for above the surface, something they had never done before. They constantly studied up on it from books they had gotten from their parents. Those trees and flowers and stuff, they managed quite well. But they didn´t quite dare to try animals that would live on the island yet. "What if I create a mouse that only has one leg! No, i first have to understand this better!" they explained in a melt-down when Lance asked why.So while the two of them discussed, Shay worked on beautiful caves and tunnels that spread everywhere in the ground and up a huge hill they had created, making it a whole system. Hunk and Lance worked on rivers and lakes, with Hunk digging holes and making cracks and Lance guiding water through it.

It was when Lance and Hunk were working on a lake that was so shallow you could stand in it, when Pidge showed up after studying for the whole day. "Perfect. From what i read about them, this should be the perfect place for them to live. Come on out guys, this is your new home!" they said and before Lance even understood what was going on, huge, weird looking, gray things stormed into the water. "Wh-What? Pidge? What are those? I thought you couldn´t create this tiny thing called a mouse yet? Why this? They are huge!" Lance spluttered while the gray, round things started playing around him. Pidge just shrugged. "They are called hippos. And they were kind of a mistake, i mixed up pages when i tried creating mice. But now that i created something so huge i should be able to create about everything. I hope. I got this now." Pidge declared with a proud grin, the green markings at the corner or her eyes glowing, just in time to show that they were getting bigger.

Every spirit had those markings in the colour representing their kind. They grew larger with how much knowledge and ability they had about using their power. Those who just got cities handed to them never grew large ones, because city spirits tended to be lazy about their work since everything was already done, but those of Lance and his friends had grown larger already in the span of their time here, thanks to their hard work on the island.

"Wow that´s so great Pidge! I am so proud! You know what else is grey and very lovely and i am sure the hippos would love them..." Lance started but Pidge cut him off. "You´re not getting sharks for up here Lance. I made you some in the ocean, be happy with those. They would just eat the hippos. Or would the hippos destroy the sharks... they are pretty fierce... no can do Lance."

"But-"

"Nope."

Lance grumbled some more about how "sharks were cooler than those hippos who were just lame and slept or ate all day." It was sharks over hippos, obviously.

Little did he know that it would be those hippos that would bring certain other spirits to their island. 


	2. before you came along

The weeks afterwards, they were still working on their island. Lance´s family came over one week and a week later Hunk´s family with Pidges brother Matt. They had originally come because they had been worried but then they saw how well they were doing and left with nothing but words of praise and relief.

It was during the night after they had left that Lance woke up from weird sounds coming from outside the cave they all were sleeping in. It was Pidge who registered first what was going on, as they had a connection to all the things they had ever created. Their eyes went wide, mouth falling open and then they screamed: "The trees are on fire!"

Lance quickly stormed out, thoughts running wild with how the fuck something could just have caught fire out of nowhere. Pidge was right on his tail, but Lance´s legs were longer and he could see the part of the forrest that was burning. It wasn´t that bad yet and as a water spirit he was the only one able to calm the fire down. His breath quickened as he tried to reach the trees standing in flames. Every second he wasted, it was getting worse. It was near the small lake the hippos had made their home. And as weird as he thought those hippo things were and how much he´d rather have some cool sharks, he wanted nothing more than to save those hippos. From afar he heard voices talk.

"This island has hippos Shiro! Hippos! Can we stay here! I haven´t seen hippos in forever and gosh lok at how cute they are!" screamed one voice full of adortion. "Keith. Calm down. You´re setting the tree behind you on fire. You´re gonna angry the spirits living here." said a calmer voice, obviously trying to tame the fire spirit whose powers were running out of control because of his strong emotions.

Lance didn´t look at the other spirits when he stepped out of the forest onto the open field, quickly making the water in the lake raise with one single flick of his hand. Water drops were raised into the air, startling the hipos who tried to catch them with their mouths. Lance moved his whole arm into the direction where the fire was currently burning their forest, making a large splash of water come over it that put the fire out. Normally Lance was more of a show-off when he controlled his element.

But right now he didn´t feel like showing what beautiful tricks he could make the water do. He knew he was good at it, back at home he had been known for his beautiful water shows. He was so in control of the element that his blue markings were larger than most of his age. But right now Lance felt like being efficiant was more important than beauty.

"What the actual fuck! Get your shit together guys!" Lance yelled once the fire had been put out. He whirled around and for the first time he saw the spirits he had to thank for this mess. And if he hadn´t been so utterly mad with them he probably would have blushed really hard.

In front of him stood two breathtakingly good looking men. Both so very unique in their own way. One of them had large red markings under his stunning purple eyes and his black hair was cut into a very weird shape. He obviously was the fire spirit  that had set everything on fire.Lance could feel the warmth coming from him just by standing near the man. The spirit was wearing black fingerless gloves that Lance couldn´t help but wonder how he didn´t accidentally burn them when using his powers. And why the heck they were fingerless? Other than that he wore a black shirt under a tight red jacket, black skinny jeans and white-red boots. The clothes really didn´t leave much to the imagination.

Lance had only heard about fire spirits, but had never acutally met one before since he used to live on the bottom of the ocean and all. He had heard they were impulsive, controlling their element with their emotions, but Lance still couldn´t comprehend how this guy had set a forest on fire just by being excited to see hippos! He felt weirdly annoyed and at the same time attracted to the dude. Just being near him made his usually cool body boilingly hot and his usually calm self seemed to go right along with it too.

The other taller and more muscular spirit had silver-white markings under his eyes and Lance had to dig really hard in his memory to come to the conclusion that he was a lightning spirit. He only had one muscular arm and in the back of his mind Lance was planning to ask Hunk and Pidge if they could make a fake arm, if the spirit wanted one. If those two turned out to be nice even though they were burning half of their island down (Ok,it was ONE tree but it could easily have been more if Lance hadn´t been so fast ) then Lance wouldn´t let them leave without at least offering. Who knows if the man knew any other spirits of creation and earth he could ask, so Hunk and Pidge were his best shot, after all Hunk was able to control metal as well, something not every earth spirit was able to do.

The other spirit had a matching white part of hair while the rest of it was cut into a short black undercut. His eyes were a light grey and Lance couldn´t help but wonder if he was using eyeliner or not. If he did, he definitly had to give Lance some tips, cause dang, it looked good. He wore black tight clothes with a high collar and a zipper in the front and Lance really wanted to open the shirt´s zipper. Damn, he was getting thirsty. Which was ironic, being a water spirit and all.

But Lance wasn´t here to oogle at those two cuties. He crossed his arms in front of him, cursing the fact that he was looking like a tired mess. Of course hot (possibly bad, Lance, remember they could be bad guys) dudes just had to show up while he was still relaxing from some of the most exhausting weeks of his life. "Spill it or leave right now." Lance said threatening and something dangerous light up in the fire spirit´s eyes. "Leave? How about you leave! We were here first! We actually care for this place! I am so sick of all those spirits who get finished islands, passed down to them for generations and don´t do shit maintaining it! There is still so much work here to do and you are just sitting on your ass after getting it!" he snapped and Lance´s eyes widened.

"We didn´t get this passed down you shit! My friends and I, we built this island, everything you see, in the last few weeks! Even raised the ground you are standing on, so that it would be above the waters surface! And we´re still working really hard on it! And you just come here and burn down one of our trees! Scare our hippos! What if i hadn´t made it in time huh! Don´t you tell me anything about maintaining our island, you should first learn how to control your goddamn fire!"  Lance shouted back and as in proving a point, dropped a huge amount of water over the fire spirits hand, which had started burning again.

A huge red blush spread across the now wet fire spirit´s face and he looked at the ground. "You built all this?" said the lightning spirit and Lance couldn´t help but heat up under the look of those eyes that were looking at him in such amazement. "Well obviously i didn´t build it alone! But i did, with my friends yes. Hunk, Pidge and Shay, so yeah... We wanted to create something big, something we could truly call "ours" cause we made every single part of it ourselves. I know it´s still pretty empty and not much yet except for those hippos but we´re just four spirits so we can´t work on it too much, it would be too exhausting. But we refuse to get any help from our families." Lance felt shy while explaining.

The taller spirit´s eyes seemed to only grow more intense with each word Lance said and the fire spirit had now also looked up and stared at Lance in amazement. "All of this. Wow. Not many spirits build their own project nowadays." The lightning spirit mumbled while looking over to the other, who still was looking at Lance like he had grown a second head.

"My name is Shiro. I am a spirit of lightning and thunder. And this is Keith, a, uhm, fire spirit ... as you might be able to tell." Shiro explained with a chuckle and stretched his hand forward for Lance to shake. "And we apologize. We didn´t mean to be rude or hurt your island. Keith just really loves hippos and we haven´t been able to see any for quite a while since we have been traveling for ages. So he got really excited!" Shiro continued.And Lance couldn´t help it.

He just burst out laughing, it was too cute to hear that the grumpy Keith had lost it over those weird grey cuties Pidge had created by accident. Keith and Shiro gave him a weird look and Lance tried to calm himself down, so that he would be able to speak. "Gosh. Haha. Sorry. Just...Pidge created those hippo-thingies by accident and i think it´s just too ironic how those "accidents" got other spirits attracted to our island. Don´t get me wrong dudes, we love them to bits, i even gave all of them names. Anyways- Keith, Shiro, my pleasure to meet you guys. The name´s Lance, the best and most handsome water spirit you´ll ever meet. And just you wait- this place will be a real paradise soon enough!" Lance declared with a wink and now Keith and Shiro were smiling at him. 

But then the smile disappeared from their faces when Lance finally said :"May i ask why you guys have been travelling for years? Don´t you wanna settle down, choose a mate and start your own project with them?" Lance tried to fool himself that he wasn´t just trying to find out if those two were single or not. It was Keith who spoke up next. "Have you heard about the Galra spirits?" he asked with a grim face and Lance nodded. Even on the bottom of the ocean Lance had heard about them. 

They were an old-traditioned large family of spirits that had been around for generations, known for their purple skin. They were a family known for their distructive ways of getting the parts of the world they wanted, meaning that if they wanted a special part of the world but the spirits living there refused to give it to them, they would destroy it. Completely. And destroying all of a spirits work, as mentioned before, made a certain part of them die, the part that held the will to create stuff anew. It was a nightmare. Lance was so happy that the Galra were only interested in famous cities or landmarks of importance. 

"We kind of fled from them. They took over the part we peacefully lived in. And they are old-traditioned jackasses. So when they heard that we were in a relationship even though we were different kinds of spirits they flipped and wanted us to break up. They still believe that waterspirits should only date waterspirits and so on. So we fled. Have been from then on for quite a while. Currently we are just trying to find a peaceful land to live without them nearby. Far far away from the Galra." Keith continued, while grabbing Shiros arm to invervine their fingers. And Lance couldn´t help it. He had never been good in not speaking his thoughts when he was angry.

"What the actual fuck! How dare those guys! You should be with who the fuck ever you want to be! And you guys look sickenly cute together! Gosh! Not even starting with the rest of this shit!" he yelled, throwing his hands in the air, which made water rain down on Shiro and Keith because he was losing his control over his emotions. But Shiro and Keith didn´t look mad, just very happily surprised. And now that he knew, he totally could see it. They were perfect for each other! Who would want to break that up! 

"Hunk! Shay! Pidge! I know you´re hiding in the bush over there, listening in on our conversation, letting me do all the talking!" he said and not a second later the three stumbled out of the bush, looking embarrassed about being cought. "Sorry Lance. Just-you´re the best with talking..." muttered Pidge but their shit-eating grin told him that they weren´t sorry at all.

"Pidge, spirit of creation. I prefear genderneutral pronouns. Next to me is Hunk and his mate Shay, both spirits of earth. And us, including the hippos, is all the population you´re going to meet on the island for now. And don´t judge- we all used to live at the bottom of the ocean-we´re kinda new to this surface stuff. Nice to meet you Shiro and Keith!" Pidge said, somehow managing to sound intimidating even though they were the shortest of the bunch, glaring at Keith and Shiro behind their big round glasses, like they were daring them to say a wrong word. Hunk gave a big smile and then stretched out his hand to shake. A few greetings were given and then it was surprisingly Shay who made the suggestion, the tall girls eyes lighting up like she just had the best idea ever. Well it wasn´t that surprising after all, if one considered her big heart. "If you are searching for a place far away from the Galra to live and create, why not try here? We could definitly use some more spirits around!" she said cheerfully and for whatever reason that got Lance flustered.

Meeting two cute guys, who were beautiful inside and out was ok. Living with those two, who made Lance all hot and bothered but also feel like a homewrecker since for christs sake, they were in a relationship with each other, was not gonna be easy.

"I-I am sure t-they want something better!" Lance shrieked. What earned him a few weird looks from his friends. Lance was never one to down-talk their creations. But then Shiro and Keith shared a look and afterwards they looked hopeful while Shiro stated: "Actually we would love to stay! If you would have us!" 

And who was Lance to say no to this cute couple in bad luck, just because he was feeling a little bit heartbroken over them.

Little did he know that this would be a huge changing point for all of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was mostly inspired by the talk about Keith being the spirit of fire and Lance being the spirit of water as well as many Percy Jackson AUs. Weirdly enough the idea of spirits shaping our earth came from "rise of the guardians"movie and how for example jack frost is shaping the winter with his ice powers. Also a song "i was an island" by allison weiss, that inspired the chapter titles got me into this. Since the song gave me so many pining lance feels. As well as avatar and bending (030).  
> So yes many weird things that shaped this idea. I hope it's enjoyable♡  
> It's kinda my own idea of a spiritAU, no clue if there is anything canon about this out there.
> 
> Story will update every other saturday, i am calling this "spiritual saturday" since i am a dork and think we can all enjoy to rest our spirits on the weekend while reading^^♡
> 
> Thanks to my beta jul as always, you're amazing♡  
> Please feel free to leave love, i will try to give lots of love back♡


	3. Put your boat in my sand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's saturday in my country already, so i might as well♡ i hope you have fun and stay safe everybody♡

Having Keith and Shiro around really calmed Lance down but it also upset him.Of course they couldn´t help with the islands growing much, but having a fire spirit around meant that they could actually cook their food. A luxury Lance and his friends had never had before, coming from the bottom of the ocean and all. They were quick to agree that they weren´t sure how they had survived without cooked food. And yes, spirits didn´t have to eat. As long as they made sure to be charged up on their element, they would be fine. But they could eat the same food as humans and it tasted good so why shouldn´t they?Charging up on their element though was necessary for them to survive, eating human food was just comforting. Food was delicious. The fact that they had to charge up on their element regularly was the one reason why for example water spirits prefered to stay near water. That way they would never have to worry about having too less element energy to feed on. 

When Lance had asked Keith how he was still so charged up since they were weeks away from the next island with a volcano or cities with fire, he had just grinned and asked Lance to come to their cave (Hunk had made one for them, connected to their own ones through Shays tunnels. Everyone had their own but being a couple, Shiro and Keith had just wanted one larger cave instead of two) later on. And Lance had been confused but when he shyly entered their cave that night, Shiro had grinned at him, pointing to the storm that was raging outside. And then lightning striked, the natural kind, not the one made by spirits. They had those quite a lot, being on sea and Shiro must have been able to feel it coming. Shiros marks lit up, which had made Lance blush. He had watched Shiro feed on his element, his whole body starting to glow in a white light until he was fully charged. He Threw a ligthning bolt at the next big tree outside which instantly started burning. Now Keith stood up and his body started glowing red, feeding on the fire Shiro had created for him. 

And while Lance knew Pidge wouldn´t mind now that they were a part of them and burned their trees down for a reason, he still felt like snapping. To warn them to not ruin Pidges creation. But then he luckily stopped himself just in time, remembering that this was how spirit packs worked. A team of spirits would help each other out like that, even if it meant destroying a small part of someone else´s element. And they were a team now. He looked at Keith and Shiro, saw how content, relaxed and happy the two looked like that and Lance decided that it would be rude of him to say something just because he was jealous to yet again realize how perfect those two were for each other. No place for Lance. 

And Lance didn´t know them and surely shouldn´t want them. But his want to stroke their hair, kiss their cheek and hold their hand only seemed to increase after that experience. Which was stupid. Lance wasn´t a homewrecker. He didn´t want to ruin something so perfect. Not like he'd have a chance. Or wanted one. Shiro and Keith had settled in so quickly with Shay, Hunk and Pidge that it made Lance feel lonely. Which was stupid. Why would he feel lonely without two people he barely knew. Why would he long for them? He pushed all those thoughts far away from him. He was attracted to Keith and Shiro, that much was alright. Even Hunk said that they were attractive and charming. But he wasn´t falling for them. That would be stupid. He had known for a while that he probably wasn´t as straight as he thought. But that didn´t mean that he could just fall for the next two hot guys which even were in a relationship with each other! Nope! Not happening! 

So Lance did what he was best in:   
Avoiding his problems and hiding his real emotions behind a bright smile and cheeky lines.

 

 

He started avoiding Keith and Shiro completely, too scared that he would fuck up and they would find out about his attraction. Lance didn´t want to ruin this for them. If they found out what he felt, they would feel uncomfortable and leave the island. The one place they had felt safe in for a long while. Lance wouldn´t take that from them. And in front of them he couldn´t even play pretend, too scared he would somehow spill his secret. So he stayed away from them until Hunk called him out on it. That was how he was forced to go talk to them again. 

 

Shiro and Keith were obsessed with their training deck Shay and Hunk had build for them on top of a hill. So Lance was already pretty sure that he would find them there. There was a narrow path that went up to it and on top was just an even ground with some strange markings in the earth made by Keith who had insisted on them. 

He had a weird obsession with burning markings into their underground tunnels and all over the island in general. He tried to act like there was some kind of meaning behind them but Lance figured that the boy just liked drawing. And Shiro enjoyed the drawings and making their significant other happy was really important to spirits, so Lance figured that also was part of the reason why. Not like Lance knew anything about how to keep his lover happy. He never had had one. 

Lance liked the drawings too, would often spend the hours he wasn´t busy with the island (aka controlling the ocean around it, swimming between fishes in hopes of finding a cool shark or playing with the hippos on the island) wandering in the deep tunnels, which had been really dark until Keith had left some sticks on fire in there for light, to look and search for more drawings.

Lance grinned as he took the last few steps up to the training deck. At first he hadn´t been sure what to think about the fact that they had barely been here for a few days and were already starting to mark this place as theirs as well, but then he remembered that they had allowed them too, after they had come over to ask for permission about the smallest things. 

To his surprise the two boys weren´t training as usual (and Lance felt a pang in his chest at the thought that they still must be training so much because they weren´t sure yet if they were really safe from the Galra now), but laying side by side, holding hands. Their eyes were closed as they were leaning into each other and Lance felt the need to just turn around, not wanting to disturb them in such a peaceful moment. But then Keiths eyes flew open and were fixed on him. "Lance?" Keith mumbled, voice clearly still sleepy. Shiro next to him grunted at that and they both sat up, clearly having enjoyed the warmth of the sun. And Lance felt even more like a jackass.

"Gosh,I'm sorry guys! I really didn´t want to disturb you! Please go back to sleep!" Lance hurried to say, turning only around at a voice shouting: "Lance wait!" followed by Shiros: "Come join us!"

And Lance barely knew these guys and what they thought like, always just watched them from a distance, but he knew that it would be super rude to just leave now and possibly fuck up every chance of them ever becoming friends. And that was what Lance wanted to be-friends...right? So he turned around and walked over to where Keith and Shiro were sitting, determined to keep standing but Shiro patted the ground next to him with a pleading look and Lance was too weak to refuse such a cute look. So he sat down with a huff, nervously starting to fidget with his hair.

"Did you want anything specific Lance? Or did you just want to talk to us? Which in both cases we are very happy about even though Keith would probably argue he likes the latter more." Shiro said with a gentle voice, almost like he was scared to scare Lance away and Lance felt bad for just quietly looking at them the last few days. He always did it when they wouldn´t notice and thanks to that he had been too embarrassed whenever the two had actually wanted to talk to him. Therefore he just hadn´t said anything to them at all. It must have seemed like he couldn´t stand them,now he thought about it. He had to correct this right away, before Shiro kept thinking he would just run away at his next word.

"I-I am a-actually here because of the latter..." Lance stuttered and Keith let out a pleased hum at that. "Knew it." he muttered with a smug grin that got Lance to blush and Shiro to slap his arm for whatever reason. "I wa-wanted to apologize for the way i´ve been behaving. I wasn´t aware how it must look for you, like i´m ignoring you. Until Hunk pointed it out to me that i´ve barely said a word to you guys yet, even though you have been around for a few days...I´m- it´s nothing personal! I´m just bad at opening up to new people! (Such a lie Lance, a voice inside his head mumbled) but once the ice is cracked i am a huge goofball so haha you guys will have to deal with that." Lance rambled, hands flying through the air while he explained. 

He just hoped he wasn´t making a fool of himself, more than he probably had been so far. "And i haven´t been around another spirit couple our age except for Hunk and Shay and you guys have been through so much and i just didn´t want to be an annoying third wheel since it´s not like i have a partner i can bring along and being the only single around another couple is kinda awkward." 

"Wait! You´re single!?" Keith interrupted him. Lance just nodded dumply. "How! How are you not ..." Keith kept going, Shiro interrupting him with an: "You´re being rude Keith!" 

"But Shiro! Look at him! He´s gorgeous! How? Does nobody have eyes?" Shiro nodded. "I agree. He is gorgeous indeed. But Lance probably has his reasons for staying single." 

"But Shiro, you´ve seen yourself how talented he is too! And so nice- he just took two spirits in he knew nothing about and gosh! I would totally let hell break loose with my fire to court a spirit like him as our mate! I thought it was a faraway dream we couldn´t have and would have to keep dreaming about! But he is single! Don´t look like that Shiro, i know you agree with me! I see how fascinated you seem to be by him too! Who was it that brought it up in the first place huh?" Keith kept rambling, eyes full of determination.

And Lance felt very hot all of a sudden and it wasn´t because of Keith´s precense. "Keith..." Shiro whispered with a defeated look on his face while facepalming. A blush clearly visible under the hand, probably feeling embarrassed by Keiths words. "... you are aware that Lance is right here and CAN HEAR YOU?" Shiro shrieked that last part of the sentece, face bright red now. Keith stopped his rambling mid-sentece, his mouth falling open, eyes becoming huge. Keith looked a few times from Shiro to Lance and back until a huge blush spread over his face.

"O-Oh! I-I knew that! L-Lance is allowed to kn-know i-i think - that i think he´s great! Ehm yes. Don´t make it such a big deal Shiro!" Keith started stuttering, his flaiming hot face telling different stories than the words he was just now saying. Shiro just kept pinching his nose in desperation. Lance watched both those guys blushing and having nothing but words of praise for him and he couldn´t help it. Something about this whole situation got him all embarrassed and excited, all warm and fluffy. While another part of him couldn´t help but want to laugh at this. 

 

They are obviously just being nice, Lance wasn´t as foolish to believe that they actually liked him. They were way out of his league and already had each other after all. But it was nice to hear and see that they clearly had some kind of attaction towards him, praising his every being. Even if it wasn´t romantic attraction.

Lance couldn´t hold the giggle back that was threatening to break free. So he didn´t. He just started straight-out laughing, wiping tears away that were starting to flow over. "Pff. You guys are so nice haha. Love it how you´re basically telling me you would totally date me if you weren´t already dating each other. I am totally honoured to be so appreciated by such a cute and talented couple as yourself. Thanks guys." Lance said in between laughter. He didn´t see how Keith´s brows frowned at that, totally wanting to say something but Shiro held up his hand in warning. Keith started speaking anyways, sending Shiro an impatient glare. "Ehm yes. We´re dating each other ... and you´re dating no one... so why not ..." Keith started but Shiro shut him down by interrupting. "Whoever will be be able to love you will be one lucky spirit. Or spirits. You never know." Shiro added and Lance smiled shyly now. "Wow more that one person who´d be interested in dating me? Now you´re giving me too much credit Shiro. There hasn´t been one person who was sincerly interested in dating me  so i don´t think my secret admires are going to start standing in line all of a sudden for me to make my pick." 

Shiro smiled at that, a smile Lance couldn´t quite interpret cause it had something in it that he didn´t understand. He didn´t know Shiro well enough yet to discover what it meant. "Oh you wouldn´t know, you´d be surprised Lance. Don´t sell yourself short." And Shiro actually gave him a playful wink at that and that got Lance to laugh again. "Gosh you guys are great. You totally know how to make your friend feel great about himself." Lance praised in the highest tunes. Shiro and Keiths eyes went huge at that and Shiro whispered in an unbelieving voice: "Friends?" 

Lance felt a little confused and hurt about their surprise to that. "Y-Yes? Friends. Only if you would like to be of course. And i´m aware that we aren´t just great friends just by talking once. But like Hunk said, it would be great if we could all bond more and i would love to become your friend and I really would like to get to know you better an-and ..." And now Lance was scared and rambling. He had fucked up and passed boundaries too quick by calling them "friends" all too soon. But Shiro stopped Lance by laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Lance." he said in a deep, understanding voice. "We would love to get to know you better. All of you. And bonding time with you guys sounds great, count us in anytime. We would love to be your friends." Ketih let out a low grumble at those words that sounded disapproving but Shiro sent him a warning look once more. Then Keith nodded and placed his hand on Lance´s other shoulder.

"We will start out as friends." he said with a honest smile. "Always wanting more ..." Shiro grumbled. 

"Not always! This is the first time since you and you know that Shiro. And don´t act like you don´t understand." 

"Let´s just get to know him better first Keith." 

"Yes that´s the plan Shiro!"

The two in front of Lance bickered and it took Lance´s brain a while to catch up. "Oh that´s what you want from me! Why didn´t you say so!" Lance laughed at how fast Shiro´s and Keith´s head flew in his direction when he said that. "You-You´re fine with that?" Shiro asked carefully while Keith looked ready to pounce him. "Sure!"

"Really!?" Keith´s grip became tighter on his shoulder. "Yes. I mean it will take a lot of bonding of course. We barely know each other..."

Shiro nooded and Keith´s grip was becoming uncomfortably tight. Man, someone was excited over this.

"...but I´m willing to try this new "us" sure. And therefore ..." Keith let out a very fast and very happy sounding "Fuck yes!" at that. 

"... become your best friend." Lance ended with a proud grin on his face. Keith and Shiro looked taked aback. "Wait what?" Keith asked. "Did you worry i would refuse to become besties with you guys since i already have Pidge, Hunk and Shay? Hell, I don´t believe there is only one best friend. It´s a stupid concept to always be like "There can only be one best friend". We´re all a big group of best friends. Hell, they´ll probably want to join in as well. Wow that would be great, a bestie squad of six people man! Awesome!" Lance laughed, tenderly reaching up to squeeze the hands on either side of his shoulder, laying his own on top of both Keith´s and Shiro´s still resting there. 

It was Keith who recovered first from those amazing news Lance had just delievered to them. "Yes we also believe that there is not only one to l-..." he started but Shiro interrupted him. Yet again. They had an interesting couple dynamic going on. Even when they interrupted each other a lot, it wasn´t a problem.  "Like as a best friend. There can be multiple people you can want to have as your best friend. Not only one! We love that Lance!" 

Lance nodded along happily. They were on their way to become besties and Lance surely wouldn´t ruin that by his stupid one-sided selfish feelings of his. He spent some more time with the two and when he left in the evening he still felt their touches hot on his shoulders. But now he was their friend. So he had to stop this. It was for the best. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter includes as to why keith and shiro are already so attracted to dense lance (there is a reason for it :3) as well as some of keith's and shiro's past ;)♡  
> I hope everyone could enjoy this spiritual saturday! Next week i am sadly gone and so is my lovely beta(aka the only other person i could ask to update this) since we are going to irland for a weekend♡~ yay♡ maybe i'll get some inspiration over there :D♡ i'll either be back with this story the saturday after or if i find time on monday when we come back♡ lemme know if you liked this and wish for more soon♡ and don't forget to rest and have a beautiful day!

**Author's Note:**

> This was mostly inspired by the talk about Keith being the spirit of fire and Lance being the spirit of water as well as many Percy Jackson AUs. Weirdly enough the idea of spirits shaping our earth came from "rise of the guardians"movie and how for example jack frost is shaping the winter with his ice powers. Also a song "i was an island" by allison weiss, that inspired the chapter titles got me into this. Since the song gave me so many pining lance feels. As well as avatar and bending (030).  
> So yes many weird things that shaped this idea. I hope it's enjoyable♡  
> It's kinda my own idea of a spiritAU, no clue if there is anything canon about this out there.
> 
> Story will update every other saturday, i am calling this "spiritual saturday" since i am a dork and think we can all enjoy to rest our spirits on the weekend while reading^^♡
> 
> Thanks to my beta jul as always, you're amazing♡  
> Please feel free to leave love, i will try to give lots of love back♡


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